Wasuka Art (“Wasuka”) is a visual artist management agency. We help artists develop their practice and careers. We provide business support and we promote their work globally. We stand with artists through thick and thin because we understand how incredibly difficult it is to start a career in the arts. Sustaining one isn’t a cake walk either.
Artists – both established and budding ones – aspire to create works that are relevant to the contemporary ethos. That’s what they do. That’s what they want to do. But these works need to be exhibited on platforms which are increasingly complex, contested, and competitive. And there’s stuff that needs to be conceptualised, procured, packed, delivered, and paid for. That’s where we come in. And the earlier we come in, the better these artists are served in fusing the flights of creativity and the pragmatics of business.
This is how we help: finding exhibition opportunities in galleries, art fairs, and public spaces; managing sales, inventory, and commissioned works; managing partnership liaisons, projects, marketing, press relations, and legal advice.
Ethos
What matters most to the company is the honest human connection between artists and us. We value mutual love, respect and concern for one another – the hallmarks of a good relationship.
Trust, transparency and partnership are paramount to a successful relationship between artists and arts managers. At Wasuka, these principles are the bedrock of our relationships we want to build.
The Founder
Kenneth Tan has spent the last 20 years steeped in the business of contemporary art and corporate marketing. In 2001, he founded Utterly Art, an art gallery in Singapore that has been credited with launching the careers of many young artists. Kenneth’s experience and knowledge gives him a unique insight into the trends, opportunities and vulnerabilities of the art market.
Through Wasuka, Kenneth will help artists expand both their artistic practice and their reach, bringing them to new people and new spaces.
Wasuka is named via a portmanteau of Hokkien (a Chinese dialect) and Malay which means “I like”. The first consonant “wa” is derived from the Hokkien word for “I”, while “suka” is Malay for “like”.
Wasuka is also named in honour of my dear, late friend, San San. Whenever we saw someone or something we liked, San San and I would say, “Wa suka!”
Sadly, San San passed away in 2016. I named this company “Wasuka” in celebratory remembrance of a friend who supported and encouraged all of my creative endeavours. The support and encouragement she gave me now lives on in Wasuka Art, and I now share it with all artists the company adopts.